The actor-and-comedian has received early acclaim for his new fantasy drama movie 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty', which he also directed, but he doesn't expect recognition at the Academy Awards when the film is released at the end of the year.

Speaking to Total Film magazine, he said: ''I don't have any preconceptions about that. The movie is just what it is.''

He jokingly added: ''At the end of the day, after 'Dodgeball' was passed over for any nominations, I've given up on the Academy!''

In the movie, Stiller plays the titular character, a man with a mundane life whose vivid imagination runs wild as he pictures himself as everything from a race car driver to a brain surgeon.

The film - which also stars Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott and Sean Penn - is based on a 1939 short story by James Thurber and Stiller recalls being enchanted by the tale as a child.

He said: ''I read the story when I was a kid and I remember it well. I remember the fantasy of him being in front of being a surgeon and then the fantasy of him being in front of a firing squad. It's a guy who has this incredible imagination and the iconic idea is what always stuck to me.''